While we got a lot of stuff today, some we didn't even expect, there were also some things on our bucket list or in the rumor mill that we didn't get...

A true low cost iPhone

A lot of people were banking on the iPhone 5c being the budget iPhone and I don't think that exactly panned out the way a lot of folks were hoping. It isn't as expensive as the iPhone 5s but it isn't far off, especially if you're buying off contract. With a starting price of $99 on contract and $549 off contract, it's not the low cost solution a lot of us thought it would be.

$99 on contract is still a pretty sweet deal though and there's no doubt it will sell exceptionally well.

128 GB iPhone capacities

A lot of us expected to see a bump in storage capacity like we saw with iPads. Whether that would have entailed Apple dropping the 16 GB model altogether or sliding the 128 GB model right on top of the existing model at a higher price point, we weren't sure. At the end of the day, it didn't happen and we're still stuck with the 16, 32, and 64 GB offerings for at least another year.

Better WiFi

Back at the Mac event, the new MacBook Air received better WiFi support with updated chips to support 802.11ac. Apple also updated their Airport Express and Airport Extreme lines. A lot of people were expecting, or rather hoping, that maybe those WiFi improvements would make their way to iOS as well, particularly the iPhone. At the very least, I was personally hoping to see it in the iPhone 5s, if not the iPhone 5c.

NFC

NFC has been whispered about for the past two years running and it didn't make the cut this year either. A lot of people consider it to be a 'gimmick' feature or something that may not be quite ready for primetime. Some countries have NFC all over the place already but that doesn't always make Apple jump on top of a feature. Consumer awareness is important and right now, how many people actually even know what NFC is let alone know that many retailers around them are able to accept it?

New iPads

A few weeks back there were some rumors of updated iPads being announced as well. We didn't think this could be the case and weren't disappointed when it didn't happen. Apple typically doesn't lump their two flagship products together in the same event. We'll most likely see them later this fall and definitely before the holiday season is in full swing.

New iPods

Apple traditionally holds their music event in the fall and announces new iPods. There wasn't any news of updated iPods at this year's iPhone event. If we expected to hear anything at all, it would have simply been updated colors that matched up with the iPhone 5c offerings. That didn't seem to pan out.

I'd bet we will see some kind of iPod update before the holiday season. Perhaps alongside new iPads?

What were your expectations?

What were your thoughts in regards to the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c event? Did you see exactly what you expected or were there certain things missing that you were hoping to see? Let us know in the comments!

I agree. I think Apple really should have at least tried for the 5c to be $499 (maybe even $399?) price range... Given the choice of a $549 phone with last years technology and a plastic casing, OR a $649 phone that is top of the line, I don't think I am alone in saying that I would make the extra $100 investment. At that price range, the 5c doesnt seem to hit the target group I expected it to - at least with the off-contract pricing.

Yes $549 is expensive. Nokia(Microsoft) and Samsung will still rule the low-end particularly in emerging markets where consumers normally pay an unsubsidized full price for a device. The Nokia Lumia 520/521 can be had for less than $100(ATT off contract) and less than $140 on T-Mobile. This phone is also doing exceptionally well in emerging markets pushing Windows Phone Market share ever upward. The IPhone 5c was anticipated to come at a price offering that would challenge Microsofts/Nokias and Samsungs low-end offerings. At $549 off contract I don't think it will be within reach of many consumers that the low cost phones currently cater to.

This is well said. When I saw the $99 contract price tag for that 5C I thought it was cool that they were going to do something a little different and come in at a lower price point. But looking deeper I'm not really getting the savings here. The off contract price is more than a lot of high end phones out there and the specs are pretty much like the 5. Having used a 920 and a 520, that 520 runs incredibly well for a $99-$200(locked or unlocked) OFF contract phone, I was impressed. Why would one want to buy a 5C when you can get the 5, same or similar specs, better hardware(on the outside) for less money?! Logic escaping me here.

For me dropping iPhone 5 and replacing it with this plastic iPhone is the biggest disappointment of the announcement. I was hoping for iPhone 4S to be discontinued so all the new iPhones would have 4" screens. $550 for this iPhone 5C is way to much to ask.

They are not asking $99 straight up for it, it is $549. remember that part of the cost of the phone is put in your plan. This phone is more than the Nokia lumia 920 when it first came out (last year) and the lumia 920 is still a better phone than the 5c

yeah the rumor was they'd offer a low cost iphone to be attractive in places where people don't have $700 to spend on phones. Android is doing tons of business in this low cost area. So $549 isn't that low cost price point. And i think that's what people are getting at. I think there are $199 off contract android phones sold in many countries.

Not odd to me. It's actually pretty cagey of Apple to do so, as if they're admitting the 5S is not that significant of an improvement over the 5 - where it is over the 4S. If fingerprint sensors are no big deal to you (they aren't to me) or a different processor (when the current ones are plenty fast enough) then why would you spend much more $$$ for a 5S if they still kept the 5 available at a lower price point? If the 5 were to still be sold, I'm pretty sure it would cannibalize 5S sales. Can't say the same about the 4S though. Just my thoughts.

64bit is a major improvement. Don't underestimate that. It's tantamount to going from a single lane road to double. It's not just about how much memory it can address. It's about how much of it can it address at the same time. I think Apple is positioning itself for console replacement. Games will fly on the thing..

I think they dropped the 5 because they didn't want the line confusion and price wise where would it fit? It's same internals as the 5C..

Are you referring to me or the reply? I know the benefits of having a 64 bit architecture ever since the late Core 2 Duo processors with Snow Leopard in tow on the Mac and the major benefit of such since Lion and Mountain Lion. OS X has come a long way and for that matter the iPhone and iOS as well. Waiting for the public release of iOS 7 is killing me!

What I'd really like to see is when real word apps benefit from 64 bit on a mobile platform and how much of a real world advantage it would boast outside of gaming.

The other thing I haven't been able to track down is actual RAM on the 5S vs. the 5 and just a overall battle on how much real world improvement is there under the hood.

I am a tech junkie and love gadgets of all kinds, I don't see a viable reason to upgrade to the 5S as I've only had my iPhone 5 for several months now replacing a stolen 4S and love every bit of it since the huge boost in speeds from LTE on T-Mobile. The other question I have in mind, I wonder if the iPod Touch will see a 64 bit boost in the near future.

If so, the Vita will be in serious trouble since sales on Sony's handheld have been stagnant despite the amount of power it has along with that beautiful 5" OLED display. The Vita GPU is the same PowerVR chipset used in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 but in quad core config vs the SHX-543MP2 used on the iPad 2. The only difference, it being a dedicated gaming device vs a virtual hand held computer like the iPhone and iPod Touch we know now.

With a 64 bit jump, Sony will have troubles despite freebies on PS+ but Apple taking on Nintendo in dedicated gaming platforms is foolhardy. The Wii U may be in trouble, but Nintendo owns the portable gaming market despite mobile gaming which has been getting more ambitious by the day.

not a surprise. They have make a 5 cheaper than a new 5s. They know that if they look the same people, me included, will buy the 5 instead because, the 5s isn't a big material step forward. So they simply get rid of the 5 and force people to buy the 5c or the 5s if they want the metal slick look. I think it stinks cause i'd rather have a 5 for less money, as there's nothing on the 5s that peaks my interest. Hell i'd get a 5 just because it can run ios 6 too. But they got rid of it so it won't cannibalize 5s sales.

I have no plans of dumping my iPhone 5 as I've had it for only a few months, looks great with the black/slate design.

I just think that it's strange of Apple to go through making a "low cost" iPhone despite that it still costs far more than expected. Sure it will sell for those who want a variety of colors and the like but Apple forgot what "low cost" truly is when it's essentially a iPhone 5 without the great metal look. So the 4S will still be the true low cost entry for the iPhone overall while it remains a mystery of the 5S and 5C of which will be the better buy for a new consumer when all they want is an iPhone.

Had Apple worked on making the 5C less expensive (or reduced the huge profit margin a bit) it would have been a far better choice for a true entry level device without eating into the sales if the existing 5 was kept at a price drop with 16GB only and the new 5S still being the "new must have" for die hards.

It's not so much of me calling shenanigans for eliminating the 5, but still selling old tech as the 4 and 4S as new with the promises of a true new low cost device instead of nixing the 5 and putting it in pretty colors at still a high cost.

People who want the 5S will do so and get one. Others will get sticker shock from the 5c and either buy a truly outdated device or a Android device for the same amount on a new contract or even a renewal/early upgrade.

I'm not really bothered by the incremental features. The iPhone 5 is still an awesome and insanely fast phone. My old work PC had a fingerprint scanner which was nifty but also a bit annoying with Windows Vista which for every UAC dialog I had the option of typing my account password or using the fingerprint scanner.

Granted it was a major security bonus, it was what it was. The first phone I seen it on was surprisingly not a BlackBerry. It was the first Android powered Motorola Atrix.

For business use and mission critical data protection, it's a great thing to have for Apple moving into big business as some are already. For personal use, to me, it would be more of an annoyance and I'd never bother using it.

As for the other updates, 64 bit is a great thing! Only for apps that must be rewritten to take advantage of it. The improved camera is nice and I do shoot a lot of pictures and video with my iPhone 5. The bump to a higher aperture is a bonus but not worth upgrading for a camera when my primary is a DSLR for photos that I intend to keep for a lifetime. The sensor on the iPhone 5s (and the iPhone 5 itself) still is no match for a true DSLR but does make many point & shoot cameras pretty much pointless unless you really need the optical zoom.

Have fun with that S4 disappointment. My brother just bought one a few days ago. I taught him about the new features and showed him how to use the phone and it was laggy as hell. He even asked me if maybe we got a lemon, so we went back to the AT&T store, told them the issues and we got a new one. Tested it out in the store and the same things kept happening. From portrait to landscape took forever. And the typing... oh my god the typing was horrendous. Air gestures are bullshit. They dont work correctly half the time, visual tilt also a complete fail. The whole stop the video from playing when you look away was also a let down as it kept pausing and playing while we tried watching a video. I really dont know why people like those phones, theyre horrible.

Seems like you had a bad unit or didn't update it because my S4 flies. Best phone I have owned. Millions of S4 owners can't be wrong. I have none of these issues, I agree some of the features are gimmicky but easily disabled.

Scoble's argument was that in most countries, NFC is not at a critical mass, and iPhones are, so that, with the right push, Apple could force Bluetooth LE into that mobile payments role. Not sure if I buy it (chuckle), but an interesting read.

Nexus 4 is $250 off contract. That's a low cost option. I paid $60 for my Galaxy S4 Active on contract, my wife paid $70 for her HTC One. $100 on contract is not budget, it's mid-range at best, and if you know the rebates you can get a flagship for less than that.

The Nexus 4 is also a great device if you wish to avoid carrier bloat and experience pure Android without skinned versions (T-wiz, Sense, etc). I had sold my older Galaxy Nexus which was a great phone despite its age. It ran JB 4.2.2 like a champ but the hardware was not so great for gaming.

I'm really surprised at the 5C's pricing. Considering the annual release cycle Apple adheres to, this is essentially ceding the low-mid tiers to their competitors for an entire year. With the rate of adoption in emerging markets growing so quickly, this almost looks like Apple has just given up on that demographic more or less permanently.

Well I use it for payments (at limited places) with Google Wallet and Transferring files quickly between my devices. But it has the potential to do much more if people just took advantage of it. That is why I had hoped Apple would catch on, because then maybe the world would. It is much more popular over seas I hear.

ok. Would apple be able to use Google Wallet? Would transferring be faster than wifi cause i use a cable because my wifi isn't that fast. I'll be honest, i don't use google wallet and i can't say i've seen places to use nfc to pay for anything.

I think you are missing my overall point. Why wouldn't apple be able to use Google Wallet, they use all other Google services. Maybe it is not available where you live, but where I do I see it quite often, but would like to see it more. My point is NFC is not popular right now, but if Apple adopted it there is a good chance it would catch on and I think that would be a good thing. For example the new iphone5s has a fingerprint scanner in it. When was the last time you used a fingerprint scanner or saw one anywhere? My guess is probably never. But now that Apple has implemented it in their iPhone I have a feeling we are going to start seeing them used for many different things.

A valid point. I think a business company like apple has to determine if it gains much buy the added cost of the tech on the phone and do they need to be the ones to push the tech. I think it's the same as a car company deciding if it wants to release a hydrogen powered car or a natural gas car. Yeah it may have more push for natural gas but is it their job to push it and do they get any great benefit from being the ones pushing? I don't know. I just asked a question because i don't see them being used. I wasn't claiming the tech was worthless as the guy above tries to claim i said. In the same way i wouldn't claim electric cars or nat gas cars are worthless.

You've read into my question you're own personal issues. I NEVER said it was "worthless technology" I only asked a question about real world usage. Clearly you have an issue with Apple since you immediately read an honest question as some sort pro apple statement.

As for your responses great. I can't say i've seen any of those. I don't drink soft drinks, i get gas from two places Arco (only pay cash at the pump cause they stole credit cards) and Costco (they only accept atm cards), I don't eat fast food (trying to be healthy). So sorry I've never come across all that stuff you're talking about. And that is exactly why i asked. Because where I live i don't see it being used.

Have you ever been in a Walgreens? CVS? 7-11?
I was at the Santa Barbara Zoo and the vending machines had NFC.
I think it is like buying a car and then noticing how many people have that same car. You don't look for it, so you don't see the little ((( symbol all over the place.

Walgreens has been really the only place in town that uses it mainly since all their cash registers and payment terminals are far newer than most. I've only used it once since my Wells Fargo card had the PayPass feature.

On the other hand bar codes in various apps like Starbucks just scan my phones screen instead of having to dig out my wallet and more secure in many situations full of wireless hardware on open WiFi.

Some day NFC may happen on the iPhone, but it's really not in much demand and more of a "Hey! Look at me!" feature to impress most people who really wouldn't care either way.

The 5S upgrade is a no-go for me and I'm plenty happy with my iPhone 5 on T-Mobile of which LTE just lit up in my smaller town in the Central Valley of California. Something I'd never thought would happen.

Before I went back to the iPhone, I had various different Android devices for a long while and never found a single useful purpose for them. Starting with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus to my last Android phone, the Galaxy S3. Never once in the entire time I've owned them, I never found a practical use for NFC.

It's a neat tech that was added as a gimmick on my Wii U game pad, but just toy figurines have used it. If I could use my bank card with it, that would save some time, but sure enough, still have to type it in.

The black front was a little odd I thought. Why not carry the whole color scheme over the entire phone? It was almost like they had a whole bunch of front panels left over and decided to use them to save money.

Come on,, I really want NFC on iphone and the "lost cost" is not the lost cost I was expecting, it still being so expensive for someone that have to buy it off contract, as me lol. I just have one question, is a good idea buy a iphone 5s? i think not that much, rigth?

My expectations were EXACTLY what happened. Everything was already leaked long ago and largely spec bumps again. I'm not surprised they don't up the storage because from the navigation changes in ios 7, auto expanding all albums, lists that have album art and 4 entries per page rather than just a list and about 8, show me the people at apple aren't like me with large music collections accumulated a lifetime ago. They only have a little bit of media or they'd hate having to giant lists of auto expanded albums or having only a few artists names per page because if you have lots of artists you've doubled your scrolling. I think they are more the, "i own just 5 albums by art garfunkel or katy perry" types. But by and large Apple is doing exactly as i expected. That's not a good thing though. It's enough to maintain but not enough to hold the status quo but not enough change the equation. and by that i mean they haven't put anything out that is gonna make people who were willing to consider Android to not consider it.

Ally as much as many of us wanted they key items you mentioned you have to admit the package we did get is pretty cool. You just can't have every all the time. As I am writing this and listening to ABC news the businessmen in the Tech field are blasting apple for of all things the low cost phone.
Like I said you can't have everything but that does not mean Apple won't come out with a low cost phone in the fall??

I was counting on Apple implementing a 3 party keyboard like Swiftkey. I'm so use to typing with swype style keyboards and plucking away just doesn't cut it. NFC would have been great for gas, coffee and lunch time check outs. I sold my iphone 5 last week thinking the new iphone 5S would have added much more. Oh well, the stuff they did add on will make it a better phone. I am just hoping this finger print scanner doesn't end up being a lag and a system bog down. This is on a button that is the most used feature on the iphone. The old home button was always the first thing to fail, this might make it fail even faster. Hoping they really worked out the bugs.

I'm surprised you didn't mention larger Retina displays. With Spamsung leading the pack with 4.5"-6" screens, I was so hoping there would have been a 5X with a 5" screen, one-handed navigation be damned.

I feel that the 5 should have replaced the 4S in a 8GB model as the new low cost option. That way anyone upgrading will be on far more current tech and while 8GB is a silly amount of storage to struggle with (even 16GB models these days as apps grow larger)

On a new iPhone, I'd like to see 32GB as the new minimum. Especially for a premium device.

Maybe Apple will hold another event in about a month from new, announcing new iPods/iPads & possibly OS Mavericks & maybe new Macbooks? Kind of like they did last year with the Macbooks when they announced the new models in October 2012, a month after they announced/released the iPhone 5.

That's all that could realistically be expected given Apple's rigid ways. Now, next year is the big gamble. I don't really want a bigger screen, it would be nice, but I definitely want a bigger battery.

The 5c was a major major disappointment. It;s like Apple is willingly giving up the lower end market while making their own product line more confusing (last years model discontinued, model from 2 years ago still kicking, new model with same specs as last years model at the same price just with cheaper material). I dont see any sense in this, aside from the fact that the 5c probably cost less to make than the 5, therefore making apple more money (at the expense of losing the lower end emerging markets). Like seriously, I just see no point, unless apple has something weird up their sleeve.

I think a lot of the hate over the 5C is because people were hoping for a really cheap phone based off of the rumors. If the rumors were never released into the wild people would have probably been happy with the end result. Instead, a lot of people were set up for a $200-400 off contract device. Instead, we ended up with what has been the norm from Apple related to their pricing structures.

I wasn't expecting Apple to reveal anything jaw-droppingly and mind-blowingly awesome this year, so I was OK with the 5C and the 5S for the most part.

For me the only real disappointment was the lack of a SwiftKey or Swype-like gesture keyboard of some sort in iOS7. That would have compensated for the narrow screen and I probably would've considered buying a 5S. I have a Nexus 4 and I find the gesture keyboard plus the larger screen to be very helpful and indispensable. So no iPhone for me until then.

I agree with what has been said. They dropped the 5 so it would not take sales away from the 5S. I have no need to upgrade my 5. It looks as beautiful as the 5S and will work just as good for me. There was nothing in today's announcement that made me say "I need that phone." Fingerprint scanner: gimmicky, 64 bit processor: I do my extreme gaming on a big HDTV. It does not help me while playing Candy Crush, Improved camera: My 5 takes excellent pictures. Lets see what they have in store next year.

- bigger screen. Deal breaker for me
- NFC. I knew they wouldn't, but I'll never be able to ditch my wallet until Apple gets on board.
- Swype/swiftkey. That can come in a software update though. Still, really hurts the platform.

I am fine with what was announced. I currently have a 4s. I will be getting a 5s. The one thing that would be SO easy to implement would be some sort of quick reply feature for texting. It's hard to believe that didn't come in iOS 7! I'm not a dev, so I don't have the new os, but I can still hope that this functionality will come!

While I'll be sticking with iPhones for the foreseeable future due to ecosystem investment I'm very underwhelmed this year. Apple claim to care more about the product than profits yet they continue to make ludicrous profits while nickel and diming about things like sticking with 16GB base storage, charging $100 for each storage option and not including things like NFC, wireless charging or a much bigger battery. Even the 5C is all about profit and is not a budget model. In previous years they kept the old model as a lower cost option, which was OK, but this year they took the previous model, reduced its manufacturing cost, yet are still charging the same amount as the old lower cost option.

The 5S CPU, camera improvements and Touch ID are mediocre upgrades. While I'm looking forward to IOS 7 it is more of a catchup release than anything revolutionary.

NFC and wireless charging aren't necessarily gimmicks and could be used for so much if Apple put their weight behind them.

Wireless charging could allow for a totally sealed unit or at least totally sealed cases that you don't have to worry about taking off or having ports that open (and break, leak, collect dust). You can have charging cradles that cup the device and it doesn't matter if you have a case on or not, no picking up the cradle with the phone or flinging the phone across the room when you trip over the charging cable, etc etc.

NFC isn't necessarily an alternative to Bluetooth or Wifi and doesn't just have to be confined to mobile payments. It can be a trigger for actions where bringing devices in very close proximity makes sense. Imagine if Apple had NFC in ALL their products. You could touch your phone or iPad on top of your time machine to auto join the network. Touch the phone on top of a MacBook to automatically setup iTunes wifi syncing, public wifi access points in cafes, etc could have a point near the counter that let's you auto join their network with encryption (and you also can be fairly confident no one is spoofing the network too) etc etc.

Im a little confused at them keeping the 4s? wouldnt it be cheaper to have all ip screens the same size, & they could get better costs buying them in a larger bulk. plus, continuing to manufacture a 3rd & older product seems expensive. why not just continue making the ip5, offer it only in an 8 & 16 gb model, & for people that want 32 or 64 gbs, there only choice is the 5s. until i see how the 64bit chip really works, i don't see a need. sure, it will be faster, but if apps aren't coded for it, it wont be that much of a jump. probably why they compared the new phone to the specs off the original, sure 40x's faster seems incredible, but if you compare it to the ip5, is it more like 30% faster?

I was really hoping for nfc. I thought it wouldve went very well with the fingerprint scanner because of all the security concerns everyone, including me, has. but going through the blog i do realize that it would cost apple more than they would gain from it. and maybe thats the reason they have not implemented it yet. but it would really help a lot. i have so many card that my wallet doesnt even last me 6 months before breaking apart.

another thing i wouldve love to see is bigger battery. the iphone is pretty thin and i love that about it but i think another mm or maybe even half wouldve helped with battery life. i find that my iphone dies a lot faster now than my previous ones. i used to only charge every other day but now i need to charge not only everyday but most of the times multiple times a day. as for the wifi and storage, i dont/cant really get a new timecapsule every update so for now it'll suffice. plus it all depends on your providers speed. and storage wise, 32 is sufficient enough for me although i only have 511mb left. but thats mostly because i have over 8000 photos, most of which is dslr full size photos, and almost 200 apps.

also i do plan on getting a 5s. i do upgrade every year. i usually sell my old phone on craigslist and they normally sell for the amount i use to purchase the new phone. those are with contract though, if ur like me and on a family plan with diff upgrade dates ur not likely to switch carries, so might as well take advantage of the subsidies. and if youre feeling really frugal you can try to purchase apple gc on there too, and you might even make a profit. just make sure you know how to buy gc on craigslist. and dont drive everywhere just to save a few bucks as it could end up costing you more on gas than it would save.